My flag among the nations June 27, 2013

To mark the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, for the last six months Dublin City Council has flown the flags of the 27 EU member states on the south quays, in protocol-respecting alphabetic order beginning with the Bs for België/Belgique and България/Bulgaria near O’Connell Bridge at Aston Quay, ending with a U for United Kingdom outside the Civic Offices at Wood Quay, where the sequence is ended with the EU flag and a second appearance of Ireland (which is also flown in the Es for Éire furthter back). For some reason unknown to me, the sequence skipped a flag pole at Capel Street Bridge, which has had a banner for the Presidency instead.

At this time of the year, those flag poles would normally be flying one of the two versions of the Pride flag (a six-stripe version and a seven-stripe version) that are held in stock here, but this year the Presidency has trumped Pride.

However, two Pride flags have been added to the end of the Presidency sequence at Wood Quay, and the presidency banner at Capel Street Bridge has been replaced with a Pride flag.

Given the attitude of some of our EU partners to lgbt rights, I hope somebody can make a film of the full set of flags, driving down the quays, showing how the city has marked the presidency and has integrated the lgbt Pride flag into it. It may not be a killer punch in any hard political neogitations in Lithuania or Poland, but it would be a nice piece of footage to boost the morale of my fellow EU-citizens who do not have the social and political atmosphere that I enjoy.